Presidential Assistant for the Visayas, Secretary Michael Dino, has assured Edward Du, governor of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) 7 (Central Visayas), that he would help provide free Wi-Fi to conflict areas in Negros Oriental.
Du, who is also a former president of the Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NOCCI), said on Wednesday that he met with Dino the day before in Cebu City.
He said he handed to the presidential assistant the resolution of the Negros Oriental Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NOTF-ELCAC), asking the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to provide free Wi-Fi to insurgency-affected areas in the province.
Earlier, as part of the NOTF-ELCAC, the DICT promised to provide the bandwidth alongside NOCCI’s technology for a free Wi-Fi connection to barangays in Negros Oriental affected by the activities of the communist terrorist group.
During the NOTF-ELCAC’s launch and subsequently its first activity in Guihulngan City, it was announced that Barangay Trinidad would be the pilot area for free Wi-Fi.
However, DICT-Negros Oriental later announced it could no longer push through with the provision of free Wi-Fi to Barangay Trinidad due to a problem with the contractors in nearby Vallehermoso town, from which the bandwidth would have been sourced, Du said.
Because of this development, the NOTF-ELCAC passed a resolution asking the DICT to hold its promise of providing Wi-Fi to residents of conflict areas in Negros Oriental, noting that the agency continues to do the same in other parts of the country, he added.
The businessman said Dino was “very accommodating” and had called DICT in Manila regarding this concern.
Du said he hopes that with Dino’s intercession, the free Wi-Fi project would be realized.
After all, the project is part of the NOTF-ELCAC’s efforts under President Rodrigo Duterte’s whole-of-nation approach to attain peace and sustainable development, he said. (Judy F. Partlow/PNA)
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